Mayor suspected of lunch embezzlement resumes after magistrate sees 'mistake' in arrest

The mayor of Borba, in Amazonas, Simão Alves Peixoto (MDB), resumed his position after obtaining an injunction from the Federal Regional Court of the 1st Region (TRF1). He had been removed and arrested in a Federal Police (PF) investigation into the purchase of school meals during the pandemic.

With the decision, signed on the 12th by judge Solange Salgado da Silva, the mayor's preventive detention was revoked. She also overturned the first instance restriction that prevented him from performing his duties and attending city hall. “There was an unacceptable mistake,” he wrote.

Preventive detention is a type of procedural detention, that is, decreed before a possible conviction. Therefore, it can only be determined in exceptional cases, such as when there is a risk of destruction of evidence or attacks on witnesses.

The mayor was arrested precisely because he had tried to influence the testimony of municipal employees subpoenaed in the investigation. He called a meeting via videoconference to offer legal assistance to employees, paid for by the city hall.

“Although it can be interpreted as a gesture of assistance, this action creates a favorable environment for civil servants to feel pressured to adapt their statements to the interests of the person being investigated, potentially compromising the integrity and credibility of ongoing investigations”, the PF informed the ask for the arrest of the emedebista.

When analyzing a defense appeal, the TRF1 judge concluded that there were no grounds to justify the arrest. She argued that the first instance decision took into account the testimony of a recently dismissed former employee, who had demonstrated “revanchism” for the dismissal, but “ignored” the statements of other city hall employees.

“There was a true distortion of the entire criminal procedural logic, whose touchstone, undoubtedly, is the presumption of innocence, whose impact on the system of precautionary measures is unquestionable”, says an excerpt from the decision.

The magistrate also did not see any irregularity in the mayor's meeting with the civil servants summoned by the PF. According to the judge, there is no evidence that employees were pressured.

“As can be seen, there is no mention of a threatening or intimidating tone. On the contrary, from what can be gleaned from the testimony, the appellant made himself available to assist the summoned employees,” he wrote.

The Federal Police investigation investigates signs of deviations in tenders for the purchase of school meals. The researchers state that, although the contracts provided for kits with meat, the lunch boxes arrived at schools without animal protein, which reduces the cost. The suspicion is that the difference was pocketed in the scheme.

Simão Peixoto gained notoriety in 2021, when he starred in an MMA fight with a political rival, former councilor Erineu Alves da Silva. The mayor won the clash in the ring. At the time, the mayor became the target of an administrative improbity action filed by the Public Ministry of Amazonas.